Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

My understanding was that shipping operated using GPS, which has the benefit of a universal capability. There are a number of connections between the offshore Noble and the digital sphere. There are two examples. First, the building of an interconnector with France will allow us to run a fibre-optic cable. Currently, we do not have a fibre-optic cable connection with the continent. We are exclusively with the US and UK. The building of the new interconnector will allow us to have new digital fibre connectivity between France and Ireland, which is a real benefit.

Second, I had a meeting last week with Scottish Government representatives, where I was pushing the proposal to start creating what is known as a digital twin. This would make sure that there is good baseline data as to what is happening in the marine environment. This is very beneficial in respect of planning and deployment of renewable power, because the biggest constraint is environmental constraint. When there is a digital twin remote monitoring system, which records sea life or fisheries citations and so on, it is helpful in the environmental planning. I told the Scottish Government representatives that it would make sense for us to have a twin with Scotland in the context of a common digital recording and digital marine information management system. We can look at whether that extended to cellular networks or the need for it versus a GPS for shipping. The first thing to do is use that Internet of Things sensory system, and that will include cabling, offshore farms and remote sensory systems. That is where we are going to need to make a lot of investment.